Colonial Policy And Administration (winds Of Change) Flashcards
When did South Africa leave the commonwealth?
1961
What British imperial belief was upheld in the short term in post-war years?
That future prosperity lay in trade with the empire and the commonwealth rather than EEC as a way to regain ‘Great power’ status
How did the role of colonial administration change post-war?
Idea of ‘economic colonialism’
- main task was to protect trading commodities that were of Britain’s interest
- weren’t just focused on keeping order but on raising colonial production and modernising useful economies too
- guard vital supplies by destroying insurgencies (mainly communism)
How did treatment of indigenous people change as Britain took a more proactive role in the colonies they desired as useful?
Gave less power to them than they’d had before
- Rhodesian power to local elites had to be removed such as in Nyasaland state of emergency
- Malay state of emergency shows it wasn’t possible to rely on Malay sultans
This meant Britain tried to re-assert their monopoly of force to force economic change
How did the economic development of the empire backfire on the British?
Emergent nationalism in the colonies post-war meant that their economic colonialism was resisted
- British acknowledged the need to widen representative government and gradually develop self rule
How had colonies without a white settler majority become a threat to Britain?
After the war, an educated elite began to emerge that got rid of the idea that Britain was needed to keep order in these colonies, Britain couldn’t really justify control in these places anymore
How were the British government able to falsely believe they were ‘managing’ the process of decolonisation?
. Creation of legislative assemblies in Gold Coast, Nigeria, CAF etc were stepping stones to gradual independence
- true democratic representation of indigenous peoples was stealthily limited by the British
Which speech suggested a shift in conservative thinking, signalling Britain’s intention to withdraw from its colonies?
3 February 1960 - Macmillan’s ‘winds of change speech’
- “this growth of national consciousness is a political fact.”
How did South African prime minster henrik Verwoerd respond to macmillan’s winds of change speech?
Said that it was white men who brought civilisation to Africa and that South Africa was bare of people when the first Europeans arrived (tried to justify the good in the empire)
How did nationalist party politicians respond to the winds of change speech in Africa?
Many refused to applaud when he had finished
- speaking frankly against the country’s system of apartheid seemed a betrayal
